To start with the Victoria Falls, the world’s largest
known curtain of falling water has some incredible facts,
if not funny ones. The 1,700m wide water cataract drops
through 110 m only to escape through a series of 9
zigzagging gorges a mere 100m wide and 122m deep.

Opposite the Victoria Falls at the Eastern Cataract a
sheer wall of basalt rises to the same height and is
capped by a mist-soaked rain forest. The forest is on
the Zambian side on the banks of the Zambezi River.
It’s the only place known on earth where it rains
24 hours a day, seven days a week (24/7).

Well not quite… There is yet another waterfall.
Lumangwe Falls on Kalingwishi River in Northern
Zambia. It’s a miniature Victoria Falls: the smoke,
the thunder, and the rain nourishing a small rain
forest 24/7.

Plumes of rising mist create rainbows when light
from the moon or the sun strikes them. So the
Victoria Falls has a guard at all times. A night
rainbow guard and day rainbow guard!

Because it’s awesome, mystic and astounding the
Toka-Leya people who have lived nearby have built
a number of shrines. A shrine for a deity for a
different purpose. The Kololo called it
"Mosi-Oa-Tunya" meaning “the smoke that thunders.”
The falling water crash into the bottom of the
falls digging all the time. So the falls height is
more than the reported 110m.

Then along came the famous Scottish missionary doctor
David Livingstone who “discovered” waterfall on
November 16, 1855, about 150 years ago. He took the
honour to name it after Queen Victoria. Today
Dr Livingstone is accredited with the discovery of the
waterfalls. How about the Kololo people and the Toka-Leya?

Now don’t laugh... The Victoria Falls has many “faces.”
The “Eastern Cataract” is near the northern bank of the
Zambezi River, in Zambia. Midway towards the south
is the "Arm Chair" Falls because it is shaped like an
armchair in your drawing room. Beyond that and slightly
to the south of the entrance into the first gorge,
and there nine of them down stream, is the "Horse-shoe"
Falls because it looks like one. The Livingstone Island
is south of the Horse-shoe Falls. The "Main" Falls is
the area between the Livingstone Island and the south
bank of the Zambezi. There you’re… Four waterfalls
in the one larger Victoria Falls.

For the mystery… When light strikes the rising mist
from the falling water a rainbow is created. The day
light rainbow is exactly the same as the full moonlight
rainbow: the colour scheme and the shape of the
curvature are the same. But there ends the similarity!

The daylight or solar rainbow appears to begin from
the point above the Horse-shoe Falls. It rises with a
convex curvature towards Zambia and appear to
end in the “rain forest” on the cliff opposite the
Eastern Cataract. The moonlight or lunar rainbow
is the opposite. It seams to appear from the Arm
Chair Falls and rises westwards towards Zimbabwe. Wow!

Now, why does the solar rainbow appear to drop in the
north and the lunar rainbow points southwards? This
question of opposing rainbows continues to puzzle
many minds, and great minds at that. What phenomenon
drives this mystery?

Here is a funny story… an incidence actually, but not
about rainbows. Some enthusiastic marketers installed
electricity at the falls for ‘nocturnal’ viewing of
the Victoria Falls. The National Heritage Conservation
Commission (NHCC) dropped on them ‘like a ton of
bricks.’

The Zambia National Tourist Board (ZNTB)
hurriedly extinguished the electric lights. You see,
the Victoria Falls is a natural corridor for elephants
and other animals - the lights would have confused
the jumbos, the largest land mammals. And who in
their right mind would have wanted to watch the
magnificent awe of the Victoria Falls at night?
Who really?

And have you ever heard of the Songwe Point? It’s
a tourist spot whose theme depicts a typical Zambian
village. At Songwe Point the food is cooked in
traditional pots on firewood, not on electric cookers!
And you get to smell the fire. The food is served
on traditional utensils. As for the lighting, it's
provided by lanterns, and of course, no telephones,
but you can use your cell phone! It's life in a typical
village except for the comfort and personal attention
that will spoil you. This is the hallmark of the
"Visit Zambia Safari!"

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~JUST MY THOUGHTS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nyaminyami…the River God of Lake Kariba has a fish
head and a serpent body. Wow! The name Kariba
originates from a rocky gorge that was exposed by
swirling water in the Zambezi River. The rising water
of Lake Kariba has put paid to that.

The gorge is now 30 metres below surface. This could
not have amused Nyaminyami. And legend has it that
the river god dwelt here. And being so powerful the
deity drowned anyone who threatened the peace of
the valley.

Just before they could complete the construction of
the Kariba Dam across the Zambezi River Nyaminyami
decided to act. That year, 1957, there were exceptionally
heavy rains even the Victoria Falls recorded the largest
volume of water that cascaded over it.

The torrential rain created floodwaters that rampaged
down stream of the Zambezi River. At Kariba Dam
construction site the water broke away part of the
wall dam and in process killed a 18 workers. Nyaminyami
the river god had been made very angry...